


Beauty Marks

by savanting



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Ficlet, One Shot, Pre-Soul Society Arc, Short One Shot, delving into character relationships, different backstory, kissing fic, was meant to be fluffy but went downhill fast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Gin Ichimaru wasn’t a beautiful man, not even remotely a handsome one, but he madeherfeel beautiful, scars and moles and all. One-Shot.
Relationships: Ichimaru Gin/Matsumoto Rangiku
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Beauty Marks

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Bleach; Tite Kubo and Shonen Jump do. The relationship between Rangiku and Gin was always something I wanted to see more of in Bleach, but such was not meant to be. Maybe if the series weren't aimed at young, adolescent boys, we might have glimpsed more than the "what-if's" of some of the characters' relationships throughout the run of the story. This is just a glimpse of what might have been happening between the lines. Anyway, please enjoy!

It was another night when Rangiku’s nightmares almost got the better of her. Key word: _almost._ She might have been lost altogether if she hadn’t been able to turn in her sleep and nestle into the side of the man sleeping beside her. But even that would not last, for he always left before the sun had brushed the horizon. He never stayed the entire night: he was like an animal who could not be kept docile and tamed. If she had tried -- well, that would have been the end of it.

She pretended she was asleep as she heard him shuffle with his clothing, as he retrieved his sheathed sword. Then, as light as a brush of lips against skin, he ran his hand over her head. She couldn’t pretend to know all of him, didn’t even bother to try, but he was always gentle with her.

Then Gin Ichimaru left for whatever sly business he had planned for the day, and she opened her eyes as a sigh escaped her lips. Always, it had been like this. He had never been hers to claim.

*

Back when Rangiku and Gin were still kids in Rukongai, he made a habit of disappearing. They were street kids, abandoned to their own devices, and that had made her stick close to him, the one centerpiece of a world that teetered back and forth otherwise. But he obviously did not feel the same -- or perhaps he thought he could not show weakness if he did feel that kind of attachment to her. 

But still they came back to each other, like yin-and-yang pieces that had no choice but to fit together. It didn’t matter that they were assigned to different divisions or that he had secrets he kept from her for his own designs. Not one thing mattered as long as she could still pretend that they were those same orphaned kids, huddled together for warmth during winter and spending all their time outside when it was summer.

Summer had been their season when they could pretend all was right with their world.

*

The memory of one summer night was especially vivid. Only hours before they were set to leave for the shinigami academy, Rangiku hadn’t been able to sleep. In their small home that felt more like a shed at times, she and Gin had shared sleeping quarters. It hadn’t been easy at times, with his growth spurts and her own adolescent endowments filling out, and sometimes she would catch him looking at her like she was something delicious he wanted to try. If it had been anyone else, she probably would have shied away or hid herself in some way. But it was Gin. And the way he looked at her...she felt _powerful_.

She wasn’t above using that power to her advantage either.

“Gin,” she said, so softly he might not have heard her, but then he shifted, turning on his side towards her.

“What is it?” he asked in the dark, and for some reason she felt shy.

“Do you think we’ll stay like this?” she asked, aiming for a different tact than what she had been planning. _Kiss me_ , she might have ordered if she were older and bolder. But that kind of confidence would come with age, just not when she needed it most.

He cocked his head, leaning his head on his hand. “What do you mean?”

“Are we going to be in each other’s lives?” she asked with raw energy to her voice. This wasn’t lust talking. She was afraid. Afraid he would leave her behind as soon as they stepped out of Rukongai and into that other world where the shinigami ruled over all.

Gin’s answer? He chuckled. _Laughed_ at her. The gall of him! “The things you worry about,” he said, his tone easy as if she had not just voiced her greatest fear. “We’re not like those star-crossed lovers who can only see each other once a year. You can have me anytime you want.”

Then, before she could turn over in a huff, he caught one of her hands in his and pressed their joined hands to his chest. In the dark, his eyes gleamed like cat’s silvered eyes catching moonbeams.

“Gin--” But her next words died on her lips because he leaned over and captured her mouth with his. It wasn’t the first time they had kissed, but this time there was...purpose. Resolve. But she was still so new to such things that she didn’t know how to respond. The kiss sputtered because he was asking her a question with it, and she didn’t know how she should answer in kind.

He leaned back, brushing his fingertips against the mole below her lower lip. It felt like the most intimate touch she had ever experienced. “Sorry,” he said, but he didn’t sound sorry at all. “I probably should ask before doing something like that.”

But she shook her head. “I would have said something if I didn’t - didn’t _approve_ ,” she said softly, her voice catching in the dark. Even with the shadows hiding her blush, she didn’t like the feeling that this was a game and she was definitely losing.

Even with the mask of the shadows in the room, Gin was close enough that she could see the curve of his smile. “Really?” he said, a light mocking to his tone as he trailed his fingertips away from her face and down her neck - another question she wasn’t ready for, another piece of this game he was playing with her. “Then why are you as tense as a cat faced with a bath?”

“I’m not _tense_ ,” she said, and to prove it she grasped his hand to place it lower, against the swell of one of her breasts. “I just think there should be some care given to how a man seduces a woman, that’s all.”

“Oh, I see,” he said, and this time it sounded less like mocking and more like gentle teasing. His hand was even gentle as it cupped her breast. This time, when he again leaned in for a kiss, she didn’t feel like running away. This was Gin, _her_ Gin. “So you think I’m trying to seduce you.”

“Just shut up and kiss me,” she said, growing tired of the game, and this time he complied without a word.

It was so easy to lose herself against him, so much so that she didn’t even think of what it might mean if he really did leave her behind for good someday. She had been young and naive, thinking it was as simple as a question and an answer or even the way two bodies connect people for a sliver of time and space.

It didn’t matter what Rangiku did or didn’t do. Gin Ichimaru would leave them all behind, one way or another.


End file.
